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House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn is a medieval house platform situated on Lower Devonian bedrock in Wales. The underlying geology of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone, formed during the Early Devonian period, would have provided the solid foundation upon which medieval settlers constructed their homes. This site represents the physical remains of domestic occupation in a village that has since contracted, leaving behind earthwork evidence of its former size and prosperity.
The house platforms survive as raised ground surfaces where structures once stood, their position determined by the sloping terrain and the need for adequate drainage on the Devonian substrate. The associated hollow ways—sunken trackways worn into the landscape by centuries of foot traffic and animal movement—reveal the pattern of medieval settlement and the routes that connected individual homesteads and fields.
Today, the site forms part of a broader landscape of dispersed platforms and routeways that together preserve the archaeological record of medieval rural life in Wales. Protected by Cadw under reference BR220, these remains provide direct physical evidence of how medieval communities organised their domestic and agricultural space in this upland region.
House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR220. View the official record →
House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn is a medieval house platform situated on Lower Devonian bedrock in Wales. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference BR220.
House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a house platform. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is BR220.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Castell Blaenllynfi (6.4 km), Bwlch Round Cairn (6.9 km), Tyle Clydach Hillfort (7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
House Platforms and Hollow Ways in the Shrunken Medieval Village of Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.